Air Comet may not yet be a finished product but both jockey Peter Robl and trainer Anthony Cummings are confident the gelding has a strong future after his win at Rosehill on Saturday.
The three-year-old took out the JR Turk Handicap (1200m) by three-quarters of a length from Famous Seamus ($4.40) with the same margin to Conroy’s Gap ($13) third.
After a tardy start, Air Comet ($6) settled in the back half of the field before chasing down leader Famous Seamus and taking the lead with less than 50 metres to run.
Cummings said he was not bothered by the less-than-perfect start, adding he had planned for him to settle back in the field anyway.
“He’s just a really nice horse coming along and doing a very good job,” Cummings said.
“He’s not furnished yet and he’s got a long way to come. He’s taken some big steps in his last couple of preparations but he’s probably still 12 months away.”
Robl agreed with Cummings’ assessment, saying Air Comet had a lot of upside.
“He’s still a big baby and probably has been for the last two preparations,” Robl said.
“He’s more worried about having a look at everything rather than being a racehorse. So when he puts it all together he’ll be a nice horse.”
Coming into the Rosehill meeting, the Robl-Cummings partnership had enjoyed three wins in the past week with two-year-olds Diamond Earth at Scone, Calamba at Randwick and Ninth Legion at Canterbury.
“We’ve been having a good run. He’s been a big supporter of mine since I’ve come back and it’s good to be able to repay him,” Robl said of his partnership with Cummings.
“I hope it continues.”
Favourite Malavio ($3.90) finished well back in the field and was later found to have cardiac arrhythmia.
